When Vinyl Won’t Do

Danish duo Camilla Sørensen and Greta Christensen’s band, Vinyl Terror And Horror, had a gig in İstanbul last month. We had a chance to chat with the duo, who invented their own musical instrument.

How did you two meet?

We met in 2001 when we both started studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.

How did you come to invent a completely new instrument?

The instrument we are using consists of modified turntables and vinyls. Neither of us had played music before. We both have a sculpture background, and there was a lot of energy in building and adding extra potential sound equipment. Soon we had two extra organs as well as typewriters, vacuum-cleaners, radios, cassettes, turntables and a lot of other stuff. The turntable has followed us ever since and quickly became the dominating object in our sound. So we started deconstructing and rebuilding records and turntables. That way we could focus instead on the sculptural and material aspects of the media and choose the music we thought most fitting for the kind of atmosphere we wanted to create.

Is there any specific genre you’re focusing on?

Often we think of it as an abstract film score in which all the scenes are described through sound. We use vinyls of many different genres, but we’re especially fond of opera, European “schlager”, amateur film sound effects, and conversations in strange languages.

Can you tell us a little about your art?

Our art takes many different forms. In Istanbul we performed a live concert in which we played different modified turntables and vinyls. On other occasions we have built bigger sound installations or sculptural, site-specific projects, depending on the setting we are invited to perform in